A proud suburban resident defends her neighborhood from the criticisms of city-dwellers. It's not walkable, it's not perfect, but it's home.
Suburbs are much-maligned, and there are good reasons for that. But they are still home to untold millions, and a defense of the built environment we have is useful as a counterpoint if nothing else.
After all, suburbs are more urban than rural. Loretta Ellsworth writes, "I didn't grow up in the city or even the suburbs. I grew up in small-town Iowa. When I moved north to the Twin Cities metro, the suburbs felt to me like the big-bad city [...] I've discovered that every suburb is distinct and has its own personality. Too often those who know little about the suburbs group all of them under the same label."
While many suburbs are stereotypically white and well-off, today's demographic inversion is relocating poor people to the suburbs, where they risk being further written off. Ellsworth writes, "And as far as poverty is concerned [...] poor people living in the suburbs of the Twin Cities now significantly outnumber the needy in Minneapolis and St. Paul."
A suburban life can be interesting, and life can be boring downtown. While building suburbs may have been unwise in the first place, they exist, and people shouldn't be made to feel bad for inhabiting them.
FULL STORY: Dear smug urbanites, stop ridiculing the suburb I love
On Poverty's New Suburban Look
Author Scott Allard debunks lingering myths about how people experience poverty in cities. Poverty's suburbanization, he argues, has more to do with the loss of jobs than migration from "inner cities."
Suburban Poverty Rising in Atlanta
Driven by economic and demographic trends, poverty in "outer ring" suburbs is on the rise. Since 2000, Atlanta's suburbs have seen the highest rate of change in poverty of any comparable metro region.
TIF Shifts to the Suburbs in Minnesota
A common and sometimes controversial funding mechanism is growing in popularity in suburban Minnesota, even as its use in the urban core decreases.
Pennsylvania Mall Conversion Bill Passes House
If passed, the bill would promote the adaptive reuse of defunct commercial buildings.
Planning for Accessibility: Proximity is More Important than Mobility
Accessibility-based planning minimizes the distance that people must travel to reach desired services and activities. Measured this way, increased density can provide more total benefits than increased speeds.
World's Largest Wildlife Overpass In the Works in Los Angeles County
Caltrans will soon close half of the 101 Freeway in order to continue construction of the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing near Agoura Hills in Los Angeles County.
Alaska Village Becomes Test Case for Climate Change Relocation
The Yup’ik village of Newtok is the first Alaska community to begin a full-scale relocation necessitated by the impacts of climate change. Another 31 Alaska communities remain vulnerable.
Amtrak Takes Lead on Texas Central Rail
The high-speed rail project isn’t a done deal, but if it moves forward, trains could begin operating in 2030.
Maine Approves Rent Relief Program
Legislators hope the assistance program will help struggling low-income households avoid eviction.
City of Costa Mesa
Licking County
Barrett Planning Group LLC
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Mpact Transit + Community
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Tufts University, Department of Urban and Environmental Policy & Planning
City of Universal City TX
ULI Northwest Arkansas
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
